A suspension system for a sliding door (15) has an upper support rail (16) from which the door is suspended and a lower guide rail (25) along which the door is guided at a tilt over gaskets (12) that bound the doorway. A spring (40) biases the door (15) to an upright orientation firmly against the gaskets (12) at the door closed position.
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9. A method of opening and closing a doorway in a substantially vertical wall that is a least partially bound by sealing gaskets which comprises the steps of sliding a door at a tilted angle over the gaskets in opening and closing the doorway and drawing the door into and out of an untilted position firmly against the sealing gaskets in sealing the doorway closed.
1. A suspension system for a sliding door comprising an upper support rail adapted to be mounted over and to a side of a doorway at least partially bounded with peripheral sealing gaskets; means for movable suspending a door from said upper support rail; a lower guide rail adapted to be mounted aside a lower portion of the doorway and which has a linear portion that merges with an inturned end portion; and a guide mechanism adapted to be mounted to a lower portion of the door that has at least two guide rollers that straddle said lower guide rail and that has spring means for spring biasing the door against the doorway peripheral sealing gaskets as the two guide rollers roll over the lower guide rail inturned end portion.
7. A sliding door system for closing and opening a doorway in a wall that is bounded by sealing gaskets and which comprises an upper support rail mounted to the wall over the doorway that has an elongated bearing surface, a door suspended from said support rail, a lower guide rail mounted to the wall beside the doorway that has an inside bearing surface, two hangers mounted to said door each of which bears a roller that travels on said upper support rail, and a push roller mounted to said door in rolling contact with the side of said lower guide rail adjacent the wall, and wherein said bearing surfaces of said upper and lower rails are located at distances from the wall such that the door slides at a tilt out of contact with the gaskets as it is moved towards and away from a position closing the doorway.
6. A suspension system for a door that slides over a doorway and which comprises an upper support rail from which the door may be suspended, a lower guide rail having a linear portion that merges with an inturned end portion against which the door may be guided at a tilted angle as it slides over the doorway against the linear portion and guided to an untilted angle as it closes the doorway as it slides against the inturned end portion, a bracket adapted to be mounted to the door, a fixed guide roller mounted to said bracket, a swing arm mounted to said bracket at a pivot, a push roller mounted to said swing arm to one side of said pivot, and a spring mounted to said push roller and to said bracket to the other side of said pivot whereby the spring becomes over centered and biases the push roller against the lower rail as the guide roller rolls from the lower said linear portion onto the lower said inturned end portion.
2. The suspension system of
3. The suspension system of
4. The suspension system of
5. The suspension system of
8. The sliding door of
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This invention relates to suspension systems for sliding doors and particularly to suspension systems for sliding doors that are used in opening and closing doorways that provide ingress and egress from refrigerated spaces.
Today most commercial kitchens, restaurants and supermarkets use swing doors to close and open space access doorways rather than sliding doors. This is primarily due to their lower cost. Swing doors however are ill suited for use in refrigerated spaces such as walk-in coolers since they must swing freely and thus have clearance with the doorway bounding jamb or wall. Such clearance of course permits air to flow between the refrigerated space and ambience beneath the door even though it is closed. Swing doors also require substantial swing space on each side of the wall. In effect this prevents the spaces along the walls from being used as corridors. They also pose the risk of striking people accidently when doors suddenly swing open. Conversely, sliding door systems have been devised that can seal a doorway. These systems have sealing gaskets either on the door jamb or the door. The sliding doors are suspended by systems that have been quite costly and complex. This complexity and cost has been driven by the need for the door to travel laterally over the doorway and yet towards and away from it as it is brought into sealing engagement with the door jamb gaskets.
Their suspension systems have included ramps which drive the door towards and away from the doorway and adjacent wall in sealing it. They have also included floor mounted guides which typically have had to be mounted atop or inset in concrete. These have been obstacles that have been hazardous to kitchen workers who often carry heavily loaded trays through the doorway. Floor mounted tracks also collect dirt and grime which is unsanitary. Their trolley systems have been complex with numerous parts as shown, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,651,469. This type system is prevalent in Europe where it is known as the Fermod system. Swing doors, especially in smaller man access sizes, cannot readily be replaced with them, or retrofitted, because of their high cost, complexity and need for floor mounted guides and tracks. With larger sizes the high cost of conventional sliding doors is simply accepted as a necessity since a swing door could take up a whole room. They also require auxiliary jambs or sub-frames to support the weight of their suspension system. They also typically have a bulky industrial appearance.
Accordingly, it is seen that a need exists for a sliding door suspension system of simpler and less expensive structure that can be used effectively in opening and sealing a doorway such as one to a refrigerated space. It is to the provision of such that the present invention is primarily directed.
In a preferred form of the invention, a suspension system is provided for a sliding door that closes a doorway in a wall that is bounded by sealing gaskets. It is of relatively simple and light weight construction so that it can be mounted directly to the wall without the need for a sub-frame. The suspension system has an upper support rail from which the door is suspended by hangers and a lower guide rail along which the door is guided. The two rails are spaced from the wall at distances to have the door slide at a tilted angle over and out of contact with the sealing gaskets except at a doorway closed, sealing position where a spring biases the door firmly against the gaskets. By attaching the hangers inboard of the center of mass of the door, the weight of the door assists in effecting a good seal.
With reference next in more detail to the drawing, there is shown in
The door is mounted by a suspension system that includes an upper support rail 16 that is covered by a cover 17. The upper support rail is mounted to the wall over and to each side of the doorway 9. The door 15 is movably suspended from the rail by means of two hangers 18 to which a hanger roller 19 is journaled. As shown in
With continued reference to the drawing the sliding door suspension system is further seen to include a lower guide rail 25. As best shown in
The door is guided along the lower guide rail by a guide mechanism 30 that is shown in
Once mounted with the just described suspension system the door 15 may travel along the linear portion of the lower guide rail 27, suspended from the upper support rail 16 with its bottom tilted away from the wall 10 as shown in FIG. 3. Thus the plane of the door geometrically intersects the plane of the wall face and of the gaskets above them. As it travels in this orientation it is seen not to engage the doorway gaskets 12 by means of the relative location of the upper and lower rails. Also, a bottom gasket 45 on the bottom of the door is raised off the floor. Thus the door can glide easily unencumbered by gasket friction. Also the push roller 38 rolls free of the guide or in slightly rolling contact with it as shown in FIG. 8A. The roller 33 and pin 34 maintain the rigid door in its tilted position since they straddle the rail 25.
As the door approaches its closed position the roller 33 and pin 34 move off of the long linear position of the lower rail 26 and onto its inturned end portion 27. This in turn causes the lower portion of the door to move towards the wall 10 and the angle of door tilt to decrease. Movement of the bracket 32 towards the wall also occurs as shown in FIG. 8B. The spring 40 is brought to an over centered position as shown in
It thus is seen that a suspension system is now provided for a sliding door that enables the door to be easily moved to and from an open position and yet which provides for a firm closing of a doorway. Where the doorway is bounded by sealing gaskets which is commonly for accesses to refrigerated spaces, the door may be slid open and closed without contact with the gaskets. Yet when the door is moved to a doorway closing position it is brought into firm sealing engagement with the gaskets.
Though the suspension system is principally designed for a door and doorway with peripheral sealing gaskets, it is useful too for doorways without such gaskets or for situations where sealing gaskets are mounted to the door instead. It can be mounted directly to a wall or wall panels since it is of such simple and lightweight construction. It presents a low profile appearance rendering it suitable for kitchen use.
While the system has been shown and described in its preferred form, it should be understood that many modifications, additions and deletions may be made thereto without departure from the spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in the following claims.
Thorsen, Thomas A., Finkelstein, Burl, Mitchell, Brett A.
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Executed on | Assignor | Assignee | Conveyance | Frame | Reel | Doc |
May 04 2000 | FINKELSTEINI, BURL | Kason Industries, Inc | ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST SEE DOCUMENT FOR DETAILS | 010800 | /0156 | |
May 04 2000 | THORSEN, THOMAS A | Kason Industries, Inc | ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST SEE DOCUMENT FOR DETAILS | 010800 | /0156 | |
May 04 2000 | MITCHELL, BRETT A | Kason Industries, Inc | ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST SEE DOCUMENT FOR DETAILS | 010800 | /0156 | |
May 05 2000 | Kason Industries, Inc. | (assignment on the face of the patent) | / |
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